by Clair Mooney | 15 Oct, 2021 | Building Safety Act, Technical
Gov.UK have published the following updates of draft regulation concerning the Building Safety Bill which is currently going through Parliament. These are:
The Construction Products Regulations 2022
- These regulate the safety of construction products being placed on the UK market.
- Part 2 sets out a general safety requirement which all construction products must meet
- Part 3 sets out provisions with respect to safety-critical products, how safety-critical standards may be developed and by whom (BSI) as well as giving the obligations for economic operators
- Part 4 requires economic operators not to make false or misleading claims about construction products
- Part 5 covers enforcement
- Part 6 makes clear that nothing in the regulation will prevent lawfully CE marked construction products from being placed on the NI market
- Part 7 extends to GB only and makes provision for qualifying NI goods to be placed on the GB market.
The Higher-Risk Buildings (Prescribed Principles for Management of Building Safety Risks) Regulations 2022
These regulations set out the principles an accountable person must follow in taking all reasonable steps to prevent a building safety risk materialising or reducing the severity of any incident resulting from a risk materialising.
Other updates can be found in the following documents:
- The Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2021
- The Buildings (Appointment of Persons, Industry Competence and Duty holders) (England) Regulations 2021
- The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings) (England) Regulations 2022
- The Building (Restricted Activities and Functions)(Engalnd0 Regulations 2022
All these documents are available here.
If you have any feedback, please email iainmcilwee@thefis.org
by Clair Mooney | 24 Sep, 2021 | Building Safety Act, Technical
The Construction Products Association (CPA) has published the
Code for Construction Product Information to ensure that reliable and consistent product information is provided by manufacturers.
Developed in response to the recommendations made in Dame Judith Hackitt’s Building a Safer Future report, the code sets the industry benchmark for how product information is presented and marketed so that it is clear, accurate, up‐to‐date, accessible and unambiguous. It contains 11 clauses including transparency of information on performance and proof of stated claims, and manufacturers can now register their interest in being verified against the code later this year. Guidance has been published to assist with the verification process.
by Clair Mooney | 3 Sep, 2021 | Technical
BSI has released for public comment a draft PAS 7050 – Bringing safe products to the market – Code of Practice.
To provide your comments on this draft PAS please use the link in the email below.
To download, review and comment on this draft PAS, please visit https://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/projects/2019-01401#/section (a downloadable PDF is also available from the bottom of this page).
The closing date for submission of comments is 27 September 2021. Please note that only comments submitted electronically through the online Standards Development Portal will be accepted.
If you are a new user, you will need to register (for free) via the Standards Development site and log in. If you have used the online draft review system before, you will need to log in with your existing login and password. For instructions on how to use BSI’s online draft review system, see https://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/Home/Help
by Clair Mooney | 26 Aug, 2021 | Technical
The Construction Products Association (CPA) has released the results of its industry-wide consultation on the new Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI). The 65 page report – downloadable at www.buildingsafely.co.uk – details feedback from 35 trade associations representing the views of many thousands of member firms across the supply chain, and 180 individual provider and user organisations of construction product information, including most of the largest companies in the industry.
The new Code was developed to prevent some of the issues raised in Dame Judith Hackitt’s report ‘Building A Safer Future’, following the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire. The CPA was tasked by Dame Judith Hackitt and the Government with tackling the shortcomings identified in Chapter 7 of the report relating to product information, specifically addressing the way information is presented and marketed by manufacturers.
The consultation opened on the 1 February 2021 with an official closing date of the 31 March 2021. This was extended to the end of May to urge everyone who had a view to submit them, and to encourage the widest representation from across the industry. The highly-publicised consultation was undertaken for the CPA by MRA Research. It invited trade associations and other organisations, manufacturers, distributors, specifiers and users of product information to comment on the proposed new CCPI and its 11 Clauses.
The CPA set up the Marketing Integrity Group (MIG) in 2018 to work on this particular area of building safety. The MIG’s work represents over two years of open debate and discussion, face-to-face interviews and focus groups across the construction supply chain. It includes detailed analysis from its Call For Evidence survey in 2019, which confirmed that for product and performance information to be trusted, it must be Clear, Accurate, Up-to-date, Accessible and Unambiguous – the five acid tests. The MIG collated this extensive input and developed the CCPI.
The Code was then put out to consultation for a final sense check. A key requirement was that respondents read the new Code before completing their respective questionnaire or providing feedback. A number of additional and insightful comments were also submitted to MRA Research by provider and user organisations alongside their completed questionnaires. Feedback from the trade associations was detailed, expert and extensive, providing in-depth comments and suggestions on behalf of their members.
The findings confirm that the industry welcomes and supports the Code, and considers it a crucial step in the right direction. The MIG spent a further two months analysing and working through the Code so it reflects the massive amount of expert feedback from the consultation.
While the Code is likely to impact differently on different types of business, it was clear that many companies have a keen interest, and strong opinions, on what should be done to address the availability, consistency, quality and reliability of construction product information.
Comments confirmed that more clarity was needed in some areas of the Code, particularly around the training and competence requirements, and on what exactly was required to comply with the different Clauses. More clarity was also sought on how the scheme will be assessed, audited and ‘policed’, as well as practical guidance on its implementation within organisations.
Adam Turk, Chair of the CPA’s Marketing Integrity Group and CEO of Siderise says:
“We are delighted with the breadth and depth of response received. The published results are slightly later than planned but given the importance of the Code, we wanted to make sure all responses were included in the analysis. Strenuous efforts were also made in reaching out to organisations directly to ensure everyone across the industry had the opportunity to comment.
“The overwhelming support and constructive feedback has reassured us that the Code is absolutely the right step forward for the industry while also giving us a lot of insightful input to enable the MIG to review the wording of the Clauses in line with these detailed responses,” continues Adam. “Whilst changes have been made around the clarity and detail within the Code, I can confirm that the eleven Clauses remain principally close to those presented in the report.”
Chief Executive of the CPA, Peter Caplehorn, adds:
“We are extremely pleased with the progress that has been made with the CCPI and the enormous efforts of the MIG in driving it through. I truly believe the Code will achieve meaningful and permanent change in our industry, providing users of construction products with accurate information they can trust.
“The CPA is incredibly focussed on improving building safety and driving cultural change in our industry. We are involved in a wide range of initiatives to ensure tragedies like Grenfell never happen again, and the CCPI is just one of those. An essential counterpart to the Code is the activity of the Working Group 12 (WG12) – a sub-group of the IRG’s Competence Steering Group (CSG), led by the CPA. WG12 focuses specifically on the competency of those interacting with products and accessing construction product information. The CSG recognises that good product information on its own is not enough; those that use it must be competent to do so, to understand what they are reading and to be able to apply the performance information appropriately.”
The Code has now been finalised, based on the extensive feedback from the Consultation, and is in the process of being handed to Construction Product Information Ltd (CPI Ltd) – a not-for-profit organisation with independent governance and management being set-up to administer the CCPI when it is launched later this year. Prior to the Code’s formal launch, the CPI Ltd will be carrying out pilot test cases and will also be recruiting a new Non-Executive Board of Directors to develop an independent governance structure. The industry can stay abreast of the Code and its launch at www.cpicode.org.uk.
by Clair Mooney | 24 Aug, 2021 | Building Safety Act, Technical
The Gypsum Products Development Association (GPDA) has been investigating the noise phenomena of cracking noises from residential timber floor structures constructed with engineered ‘I’ joists spanning between solid masonry walls lined with plasterboard on gypsum adhesive.
Guidance has now been updated with this version. GPDA-Guidance-cracking-noises-from-residential-timber-floor-structures.pdf
by Clair Mooney | 22 Jul, 2021 | Technical
FIS Technical Director Joe Cilia, presented the Specifiers’ Guide to SFS External Wall Systems at Clerkenwell Design Week focussing on the importance of early collaboration with manufacturers when specifying Steel Framing Systems.
The Guide was produced by the FIS SFS working group made up of manufacturers and installers of SFS external wall systems in conjunction with the Steel Construction Institute (SCI), which provide an independent source of information and engineering expertise in steel construction. It is intended to guide architects, engineers, designers and installers through the stages in designing, selecting and specifying steel framed systems to form the external envelope for steel and concrete framed buildings.
The guide includes 23 questions relating to ‘critical building information’, a further 15 questions to check that they are all addressed, a list of 10 questions on risk and how to avoid them and a further 10 questions on writing a smart specification to ensure a safe, compliant and complete specification can be written. All of which is crucial to ensure that the specification is not open to misinterpretation, and that any alternatives can be assessed and checked as equal, before approving them.
The guide sits alongside other FIS best practice guides that relate to SFS:
Design and Installation of Light Steel External Wall Systems
Recommendations for the Safe Ingress of Plasterboard
Health and safety handbook
You can watch FIS Technical Director Joe Cilia as he summarises the key leaning points in the guide here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cSElFKJuhQ
